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Davey Havok
The AFI singer chats about his crush on Beyonce and his high school
role in "Oliver Twist"
AUSTIN SCAGGS
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In person, AFI's Davey Havok is so charming, upbeat and funny that it surprises you that this is
the guy who writes tortured lyrics like ''My whole life is a dark room.'' From his home in Oakland,
California, Havok, 30, says AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground, is about finding love --
and is aimed at ''those detached few who, in their relative abnormality, find solace in each other.''
It's the group's most eclectic disc yet, a far cry from AFI's doom-and-gloom punk-rock roots, and
it mixes disparate influences, from Television to the Cure. The hot single ''Miss Murder'' even has
a whiff of glam. ''I'm really happy with the whole record,'' says frontman Havok. But is he
superstoked that December will be released on June 6th (6/6/06). ''I don't put too much weight
in those Christian concepts,'' he says. ''Does Slayer have an album out on that day? I hope so -- it
would be so right.''
You're vegan. What cities do you like to hit on tour, based on the vegan dining
options?
Good question. I've got it covered. New York, absolutely. You've got Zen Palate, you've got Red
Bamboo. There's a lot of vegan treats. There's a woman who makes vegan desserts in -- I want to
say Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and she ships them into New York. But then, I believe she also
sells them in Philly, which is great because in Philly you've got a place that sells vegan
cheesecakes, all these vegan desserts. Like one year I happened to be in Philly on my birthday and
everyone on tour with us surprised me with a -- check this out -- a vegan cookies-and-cream
birthday cake. It was out of control. L.A. -- it's fantastic. San Francisco has my favorite
vegetarian/vegan restaurant anywhere, which is Millennium. Chicago has vegan French toast, as
does Portland. Seattle has vegan cinnamon buns. Salt Lake City used to have vegan soft-serve.
And Vegas now has vegan donuts, which is yet another reason to go to Vegas. Then you've got
Toronto and Montreal, which has Le Commensal, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant where you pay
for your food by the weight. Like, you go through and they weigh your plate and charge you
accordingly, which is very interesting.
Did you get drunk once and then realize it wasn't for you?
Actually, no I've never been drunk in my life. I've never even had like a beer. It never really
appealed to me. That culture was just very unappealing and I never wanted to be part of it. I just
saw how people acted and treated each other. And I was just like ''that is not for me.'' And I also
thought of it as something very civilian. It seemed like the mandatory recreation for civilians. I
thought, ''If alcohol makes you do this, I want no part. I want nothing in common with these
people.'' That's when I was fifteen.
Nice. Do you think your interest in musical theatre has to do with the make-up that
you wear now?
I would imagine that it has something to do with it. I definitely had a propensity for that for years,
since a young age. And I think musical theatre helped with that. I remember being in high school
and it helping as an excuse with the more threatening students when they'd say: ''Dude, are you
wearing make-up? Oh, you're in a play, right?'' ''Yeah, it's just from the play, I'm not gay.'' [They
laugh] ''Yeah, I'm in a play.'' ''Oh, okay.'' And it's funny, because the same girls who thought it was
totally freakish that there were guys wearing make-up, when you're wearing it because it's left
over from the play the night before, it turned into, ''Oh wow, you look really pretty!''
Do you remember the first time when you heard yourself on the radio?
I do. I absolutely remember it. Well, I remember it the first time I heard it on mainstream radio. I
was in my car with my friend Tigerlily, who used to help me hang flyers for our shows, and she
used to do a fan 'zine. My car had one speaker that worked, which was on the passenger side. The
driver side speaker was broken. The tape player was broken; there certainly weren't any CDs in it.
Wow.
That's only the most really accessible song on that record, if you can say there was one at all.
What are your favorite, or the funniest uses of the AFI acronym?
Oh, I really like, Aw, Fuck It. On a couple occasions people will maintain that it stands for
something like, A Fire Within, or A Forgotten Song, something like that where they totally ignore
the letter of the acronym. Those are always really good. It's always good to hear the really sort of
uninformed, base, derogatory definitions aimed at the band. It's always good to hear the new
improved versions, like A Fag Inside. It's always good to see what they come up with. I kind of
enjoy those just to see how those people's minds work; it's kind of interesting.
As far as genre?
Yeah.
I remember what was called ska-punk -- excluding bands like Stiff Little Fingers and Operation
Ivy. You know what we're talking about. That drove me crazy.
You know, people ask me, ''Is there anything you would listen to that would shock people?'' and
for me it's hard to answer because so many people have so many different perceptions of who I
am. Wherever I go, whatever show I go to or whatever event I go to -- and I go to a lot of shows --
people always say ''Wow, I'd never expect to see you here.'' I don't know where people expect to
see me. I mean, when I'm at an industrial show, or a Morrissey show, or a hardcore show, or some
sort of fashion event or whatever, they don't expect to see me there.
That's funny.
Yeah, and I always say like, ''Why? Where did you expect to see me?''
What happens after the show when you guys all get back on the bus? What do you
guys do?
It's pretty uneventful. I mean, we get back on the bus, we all sit around a little bit, kind of hang
out with all our crew. And, most recently, I think the South Park movie happened to be on. We
discuss anecdotes of the day and then just go to bed. But, pretty rock and roll, huh?
Is there one record store that you've spent the most money at? Maybe at Amoeba?
You know, it's probably Rasputin's, because Rasputin's actually had a greater industrial, dark
section than Amoeba did for years and years. Now that's not the case. Now, Amoeba's better.
No, I don't even have the 60, that's the thing. I need the 60. I really do. In fact, I should be going
to get it today so I could connect it and have it on tour tomorrow. So, who knows, maybe by the
end of the day I will have a 60. But I just have a 40.
Definitely the gym one. Isn't it amazing that with the Nano, we can finally shove 100
songs up our ass?
[Laughs] I've wanted to do that for years. And CDs are just so bulky and sharp. Okay, I could tell
you every artist that's on here; there's not that many. Ready?
Go ahead.
Okay. Error, 108, A Perfect Circle, Atari Teenage Riot, Black Audio, Catherine Wheel, Circa
Survive, Covenant, Day of Contempt, Dead Guy, Depeche Mode, Dillinger Escape Plan, Duran
Duran, Echo Image, Erasure, INXS, Iris, Jawbreaker, Modern Life is War, Morrissey, Quicksand,
Sisters of Mercy, Tool, and my vocal warm-ups, which are scale exercises I do before the
soundcheck and before the show. It's about a 45-minute vocal warm-up. So, I have to do it like...I
usually do it two hours before we play so I have an hour to get physically prepared, like visually
speaking. And stretching, as well.
But, it reflects a lot on the band as well, I think. As opposed to just this album.
Yeah, most definitely. To speak of it in those terms directly kind of puts an air of importance on
the band that may or may not be there, depending on the listener. But, it definitely speaks that
way to us, internally.
Is there a moment, a place, a time that you realized that this is the album that you
want to write, that this was the overriding concept of the album, the theme of the
album?
It was really more natural than that. It wasn't a moment in time. It was just a flow and a growth in
the album. And, as it became realized and created, it just all came together in that way, and the
title just fit perfectly with the whole mood and sentiment. So, it just naturally came together and it
worked.
Wow, that was great. Do you remember a show with the least amount of people in
it?
Yes, I do. We played a show in Olympia, Washington on tour to three people. There were two
people who came to see us; this couple, this guy and this girl, who used to come see us every time
we would play in the northwest to very few people who typically come see us. And, this time there
were [three].
Do you remember the names of those two people? We should give them a shout out.
I wish I remember the names. I don't, I don't. I really wish I'd remember the names. If they read
this, they'll definitely know who they are; they'll definitely know because they were the only ones
there.
What was that first day like? What happened fifteen years ago?
Okay, here's what the first day was -- lunch time, Ukiah High School. Mark, Vic and myself are
sitting in our little area. You know, it was, of course, like any high school lunch -- separated by
little cliques. And we were in our very small group. It was just the three of us, that's how small our
group was. And, we were just sitting around talking about music, like we always did every lunch.
We used to talk about music or skateboards or some such thing. And, we said, ''Hey, let's start a
band!'' And, Mark immediately gets dibs on guitar. And Vic said, ''I'll play bass.''
I said, ''I've gotta sing.'' I believe someone said, ''No shit, choir boy?'' And, then I'm like well what
are we going to do? We need a drummer. And Mark's like, ''Do you know Adam Carson?'' I'm like,
''I think so.'' And he said, ''He has a drum set. He's a friend. Let's go by him and ask him.'' So we
went over to where Adam was hanging out and we're like, ''Hey.'' He's like, ''Hey.''
''We just started a band. Do you want to be in our band?'' He said, ‘‘Yeah.'' And that was it. And we
didn't have instruments. We didn't know how to play. Adam had a drum set and that was it.